Science

Skills:

• Communicates observations of investigations using scientific drawings, writing, and verbal expression.
• Conducts investigations to learn about the properties of matter, formation of rocks and minerals, and how water cycles on the earth.
• Conducts scientific investigations and makes conclusions based on the results, including, controlling variables, creating data tables and graphs, and analyzing the results.
• Uses data tables and graphs to make conclusions

States of Matter

• Materials can exist in different states - solid, liquid, and gas.
• Matter refers to anything that has weight and takes up space.
• A solid is any material that possesses a fixed shape and volume.
• A liquid is any collection of atoms or molecules that has no fixed shape but maintains a fixed volume.
• A gas is any collection of atoms or molecules that expands to take the shape and fill the volume available in its container.
• Changes of state occur when heat energy is added or taken away.

Geology:

• The characteristics of a rock show how it formed and what has happened to it over time.
• The earth is composed of three major layers: crust, mantle, core.
• The surface of the earth is the crust. Different regions of the earth’s crust are composed of different types of rocks and minerals.
• Minerals are composed of a single substance, while rocks are composed of numerous distinct grains of different substances (such as the crystals of different minerals in the rock called granite).
• Most crystals from when minerals cool inside the earth.
• Crystals of the same mineral always form the same shape (angle, number of sides, etc.)
• Crystal size is dependent upon the rate at which the mineral cooled.
• Rocks can be igneous, sedimentary, or metamorphic.
• Some changes in the solid earth can be described as the rock cycle.

Water Cycle, Topography, and Climate:

• The sun is the source of the earth’s energy and powers the water cycle.
• Water on earth cycles in different forms and in different locations, including the atmosphere and underground.
• Water can be present on the earth as a solid, liquid, or gas.
• Climate is affected by latitude, elevation, proximity to bodies of water, and landforms.
• The earth’s axis is tilted so that sunlight falls more intensely on different parts of the earth during the year. The difference of the heating of the earth’s surface produces seasons.
• Oceans store large amounts of heat that freatly affect the earth’s climate.